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ordinary guru

With all that is spoken, I love that only which is spoken from the heart. For those words are not trinkets to entertain the mind, nor are they playthings for jugglers of language to play with. They are what lead us to the stairs where rainbows are found.

Never let a small child pass you by without listening to the pearls they offer, for surely they speak from their hearts and the infinite speaks through them.

Sir Isaac Newton said, “If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to paying attention than to any other talent.” It is said that he also claimed that he paid more attention to small children than to the wisest of men. He claimed that children gave him inspiration.

So, what does all of this have to do with you?

Have you been on the lookout for everyday, ordinary, unassuming gurus coming your way to offer you a pearl of wisdom or two?

Ordinary gurus are very different than the passerby who thinks he is smarter than you, and insists on giving you a lesson on how to live better. Furthermore, oftentimes these gurus are children.

Karen is seven. She loves to say, “Hi” to Shakespeare when we pass by at the local pond where I travel. Shakespeare is my parrot companion of 34 years now. He rides on my left shoulder. I get down on one knee when Karen shows up, so she can see him eye to eye.

This particular day, after saying “Hi” to Shaky, Karen asked Shaky if he would say something to her. Shaky said, “I can talk, can you fly?” (I’d taught him that a few years back, but I never know when he may say it). She looked at him startled. Then she looked around and looked up at her mom. Finally, she leaned forward to whisper to Shakespeare, “I can fly but don’t tell anyone.”

I got goosebumps. That was from the heart. It was true. She can fly. She can do anything she truly desire to do. I hope Karen never loses sight of that beautiful truth when she grows up.

Karen’s response is not a trinket; it is not a juggling of words – it is true about her and it is true about you. Can you feel it? What might you do with that idea? You attract and act on what you believe is true about you. How will you prove that you can fly? What high aspiration have you conceived that it is now time to achieve so that you can prove that you can fly as high as you want to?

Karen has offered you a magical thread of truth that is there to guide you. Trust your feelings. You can fly. Don’t tell anyone, but do tell yourself!

Blessings and love to you, Rob

PS – I hope you are enjoying these wonderful lessons that ordinary gurus have offered me. GET EM WHILE THEY LAST! Chip in. Email me a few. I’d love to share your experiences on my website, too.

Hi folks … I hope you’ve joined the village by signing up on my email list? Let’s keep the theme of everyday, ordinary, unassuming gurus going, okay? Here’s one:

Question it all

My student became my guru. Karen told me she was very gullible. If someone told her something was true, she believed him or her.

I asked Karen if she knew what caused gullibility, and she said, “naivety.” Well, that was a great answer, but I explained to her that it was her unwillingness to investigate. She preferred to assume everyone only spoke the truth rather than expend the energy to go deeper.

Karen pondered my response for a moment and replied, “I think I am intimidated. I don’t dare investigate because I fear being rejected if I find he is wrong and I say something.

I explained to Karen that if she was to grow into the person she dreams of being, then she was going to have to learn to “question it all” – even question the belief you are holding onto that has you fear being rejected. The thought that other people’s thoughts about you can harm you is silly. They can’t harm you unless YOU allow them to.

I asked,
“What scares you about being rejected?”
“What is the rejection saying about you, according to your belief system?”

Karen, with absolute clarity, said – “I think I run away from any kind of pain. In fact that’s why I try nothing new, and am bored with my life. I hate feeling inferior and pain makes me feel inferior.”

Wow! That right there was a great lesson for me. Karen had become my everyday, ordinary, unassuming guru with that one statement.

There was a time when I ran away from anything that gave me pain – especially failure. During those times, I got very little done when it come to growth and development. I sacrificed growing to avoid feeling inferior. And not growing intensified that very feeling! I am glad that Karen reminded me of those days so that I may avoid thinking that way anymore.

“Bring it on,” I now say. “I can handle it. And if I can’t, I will come up with a way.”

Ask yourself, “What’s this got to do with me?”
I suspect if you probe deep enough and question everything, you’ll find a fabulous lesson in this.

Blessings and Love, Rob

Ps All of your emotions are forces of energy that are under your command – take charge! By the way, have you signed up on my email list yet – lot’s of extra stuff will be coming your way.

Let’s continue our conversation about gurus. Everyday, ordinary, unassuming gurus can come in many shapes and forms. And sometimes we don’t get the lesson they offer for years to come.

Here’s one.

I was fifteen, working with my grandfather removing large stones from his back yard. He wanted the stones removed because he was planning a vegetable garden in that spot.

After carrying a large stone ten yards to the edge of the lot, my grandfather said, “It’s amazing how many years I thought of growing a vegetable garden back here, but I never did anything about it. It’s like the stones had convinced me that they had a right to stay right where they sat.”

As we lugged another stone out of his designated “vegetable garden area,” he stood tall, tugged at his back and said, “Well, for now on I’m going to decide where the stones sit and where they don’t sit.”

After about two hours of removing the large stones, my grandfather asked me, “What have the stones taught you?” I shrugged. I had no response.

It was in my late twenties – some decade and a half later – that I looked back at that mental scene in my memory and thought, “I have learned something from the stones. They have taught me that we, human beings, do not change our way of seeing things until we are willing to study our reality with an eye on seeing things differently. But until then, we’ll allow even the sticks and stones in our lives to decide what we should and shouldn’t do.”

My grandfather walked by those stones for years, complaining that if they weren’t there he could plant a great vegetable garden. Somehow the stones had convinced him of their right to sit there. He never thought that perhaps he was his own problem by refusing to see things differently.

How many times have you looked at something and said, “That’s just the way it is”? Did you ever give it thought that if you saw it differently then perhaps the way it is would no longer be the case? What object, out there in the world, has convinced you that there is nothing you can do to change things?

Is it possible that you cause your own problems by not knowing the difference between mechanical thinking and creative imagining?

If I’d not learned the lesson the gurus (large stones) offered me, I’d never have evolved from teaching school to becoming a bi-coastal real estate developer to big city restaurateur to best selling book author. Nothing is the way it is until we decide it is that way.

Wow! That’s a lot of power we wield.

What’s this got to do with you? Take a moment. Think about it. You might be surprised at what you come to realize. Be honest; notice what you consistently think and the excuses you make. If you explore yourself like that – you will be delightfully startled to see how you can change your future so it’s as you want it to be.

Blessings and Love to you, Rob White

PS – have you signed up on my email list yet? There will be lots of extra treats that you will receive in the future if you do that.

On “Good Friday” – the day after thanksgiving – while taking my meditation walk, I met a wonderfully spry lady (in her eighties) who was walking and singing opera. I complimented her on wonderful voice and thanked her for lifting the energy along the path that she was traveling.

Her name was Merriam. She introduced herself this way, “Hello good sir. I am Merriam. One of my freedoms is my right not to have to explain myself to others, not even to the most intimate of my friends. I thank you for the wonderful compliment. I love that you took a moment out of your time to notice how I lift the energy of the environment I’m in. I am very much aware of that, but few realize it, and I never explain it.”

Wow! Now that started my head spinning. This gal was very much on top of her game. It was clear to me that she wasn’t my usual everyday guru, and the lesson she’d offered me was incredible. Do you mean that I can grant myself the freedom to do what I feel like doing without having to explain myself to others? That got my creative juices flowing.

Edison insisted on inventing the light bulb. In spite of discouraging comments made by hundreds of colleagues and friends, he persisted without feeling he had to explain himself to anybody.

Ford insisted that he could invent the horseless buggy. Again, many family members, friends and colleagues laughed at him. He, too, persisted without feeling he had to explain himself to anybody.

The Wright brothers insisted they would invent a heavier-than-air flight machine. The world laughed at them. Yup, you got it. They also persisted without feeling they had to explain themselves to anyone.

And what about Bill Gates leaving Harvard to start his own computer business? I imagine he felt free not to have to explain to family member and friends that thought he was crazy.

So, now, what does that have to do with me? When I decided to go into the restaurant business, I had many, many friends and colleagues advise me to save my money and effort on such a foolish endeavor. You got it right – I persisted without feeling I had to explain myself to anyone. This epoch in my life turned out to be an outrageous success (in spite of the fact that I knew nothing about restaurants when I began – except how to eat in them).

Finally – what does this have to do with you? Might I ask you – “What do you dream of doing, but dare not do because you fear you’ll have to explain yourself to someone, especially if you fail?” Might I suggest – go for it, especially if the urge won’t quit. You cause your own problems when you think you have to explain what you’re doing. When you’re free not to explain, you’re free to make great gains.

Glory to the person who is free to be who he wants to be without thinking he has to explain himself to anyone. Sweet liberty! What say ye?

Blessings & love to you, Rob

PS – I hope you’re signing up on my email list. There will be a lot of special reports and tips I will be offering to my email community. I sent one such special report last week.

Gratitude is a powerful attitude. It opens you to looking at your future, not influenced by past conditioning. WOW, the possibilities that come from that!

Okay, today I will share an experience I had two days ago with an everyday, ordinary, unassuming guru. First off, I’d like to say that I find it much easier to remain conscious of the lesson an everyday guru is offering when I suspend judgment. That’s because I find that when I am judging what’s happening to me, I am matching it to what I want it to be. Unfortunately, that leaves me very close-minded, with no opportunity to learn anything new.

On Wednesday, my wife asked that I stop on the way home and buy some cognac. She needed it for her turkey gravy recipe. In spite of being over seven decades on the planet, the cashier said, “Identification please.” Well, that was a great moment for me.

I responded, “I was a school teacher. Then I became a real estate entrepreneur. From that I became a restaurateur, and now I am a book author.”

The cashier looked over the rim of her glasses, smiled and said, “The description of your life activity is impressive, but all I need is your age, sir.”

God, I loved her clarity. She was a wonderful guru for me. She was telling me that my identity, though perhaps it meant something to me, wasn’t going to get me what I wanted from her – which was a half pint of cognac.

When you are with people, notice what they expect from you and notice what you give them. Oftentimes you’ll find it is not aligned. And right there is where problems begin.

Are we not all so caught up in what we think is important about us that we sometimes forget what others may expect from us?

Are you willing to step beyond your identity to accommodate someone else’s request? Are you willing to step beyond your memorized version of yourself and try something new so that you may experience yourself a little differently than what you are used to?

Boy, can that ever be a kick. The lesson this everyday guru offered me is this – When my consciousness is dominated by my personal story, my responses to life are much like a tape recorder – pretty damn predictable.

I want to be flexible. There is much power and great fun to be found in flexibility. Do you agree? Only when we call our “personal slavery” slavery are we free to be all that we dream of being. What is our personal slavery? Getting caught in our conditioned mind where our thoughts, spoken words and actions are boringly predictable.

Hey, how about joining my email community? I promise you lots of great tips on how to live your life beautifully, happily and successfully. I’d love to have you on board.

Blessings, Rob

Ps. When you become part of my email community, you receive extra bonus tips on how to live productively and richly that I do not put on my blog site.

Let’s keep this “everyday, ordinary, Unassuming guru” conversation going. What do you think?

Yes, indeed, life is forever offering you ordinary gurus to help you with your next breakthrough. When you finally realize that, you will be awestruck by how often life intervenes to support you with your growth and advancement through the world.

As I mentioned in my last blog – children can be wonderful gurus, can’t they? Well in this story, Tiffany, my niece wasn’t the guru but she did attract one. When Tif was a tiny tot she was afraid of sea monsters. She had watched a scary movie that she was not supposed to watch, and sure enough it scared her.

In the movie, there was a monster that came out of the sea and terrorized the local village. Now, Tif was convinced that the ocean was a dangerous place to play. She’d get very upset and insist she wanted to leave whenever we took her to the beach.

One day, we decided to try one more time to cure her of her fear. The whole family – mom & dad, gram & gramp and uncle Bobby (that’s me) – took her to the seaside, hoping to convince her that there were no sea monsters. We were doing a terrible job at convincing her when along came an elderly gentleman with his beach chair and towel. He overheard the intervention and asked if he could help. Before we could answer, he told Tif that he was a magician, and that he’d cleared the ocean of sea monsters long ago.

This old gent got her attention. Tif asked how he did it. He said, “I just stare them down until they disappear.” He went on to say, “Whenever you look right at what you fear, it disappears.” My God! What a great lesson for me. And the super bonus is that it worked for Tiffany. She was in the ocean water splashing around in no time.

That was another everyday guru that came my way. How about you? Have you been giving this any thought? Every time you remember a guru that has passed by you, there is a great lesson that you are reminded of once again.

Right knowledge and success are inseparable. Let me help prove it to you.

Blessings, Rob

PS – Have you signed up on my email list yet? There will be benefits coming for those who do. I will be offering many powerful tips to those on my email list – tips on how to be incredibly successful with anything you aspire to achieve. I’ve been around the block (72 years), and have done incredibly well in many arenas of life. It’s my time to give back. I hope you join the community that I plan to give back to.

PPS – I personally have found three very effective ways to look at my fear so it disappears. I’m sending it now to everyone on my special email list. You can sign-up by entering your email in the form on the top right of my website and clicking the ‘Subscribe’ button.

I promise you we don’t share or sell our special list to anyone. Your privacy and confidence is important to me. I promise.